Global warming estimates could pose 'enormous strife'

The chairman of Victoria's Environmental Assessment Council, Duncan Malcolm, has described new estimates on global warming as alarming.

The International Energy Agency has released figures showing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions last year, well beyond predictions.

Mr Malcolm faced widespread criticism for supporting previous estimates that sea levels could rise around Australia by 0.8 of a metre in the next 100 years.

He says the new figures show that prediction is no longer a worst-case scenario.

"I think all the credible science around climate change is predicting that in fact we could well go past the danger level of two degrees increase in temperatures to something nearer to four and if that happens we're in an enormous amount of strife," he said.